The present disclosure relates generally to an apparatus for smoking food and more particularly to an apparatus that provides a smoking apparatus for positioning inside a cooking enclosure such as a grill or smoker for smoking food.
Devices for smoking food are generally known in the art. Some food smoking devices include self-contained enclosures in which the food to be smoked is placed. The enclosures can be closed and sealed to contain smoke that imparts flavor to the food, usually with a lid. Inside the enclosure, there is a support structure, such as a grid or platform, on which the meat or other food is placed. Smoke producing material such as charcoal or wood is also placed in the enclosure and ignited. The smoke producing materials are often wood chips soaked in water to facilitate the creation of the smoke, wood pellets designed to burn or smolder when a heat source is applied to the pellets, or liquids that render a flavored smoke when heated. Conventional smokers of this nature are generally large enclosures having a generally cylindrical shape. Most conventional smokers of this nature also rely on burning material for heat and smoke production, as opposed to combustion of flammable gas such as propane.
One problem associated with conventional food-smoking devices is the large, cumbersome hardware associated with a stand-alone smoker. Many consumers own a conventional gas or charcoal-fired grill. Such consumers often do not want to purchase an additional enclosure for smoking food. Additionally, many consumers do not have the additional space for an additional enclosure such as stand-alone smoker on their patios or decks.
Others have attempted to overcome the problems of conventional stand-alone smokers by providing smoke producing devices and materials that may be used with a conventional gas or charcoal-fired grill to smoke food. For example, wood chips may be placed directly over a heat source in a conventional gas or charcoal-fired grill. During use, the wood chips can be ignited and can burn slowly during cooking to produce smoke. However, this conventional method of producing smoke has many drawbacks. It is often difficult to produce a desired amount of smoke, or to control smoke production, using this crude method.
Still others have developed containers for holding smoke producing chips for placing on a grilling surface such as a grid, grate or platform, or directly on gas burners or charcoal. These types of containers include open trays or covered pans that may be vented to permit smoke from the heated smoke producing material to escape. The food is placed on the cooking surface of the grill, and the smoke is contained by closing the cover on the grill, which may or may not allow for the regulation of the amount of smoke within the enclosed cooking area by adjustable vents in the grill cover. These devices also have problems and generally do not produce a desirable amount of smoke for smoking food.
The smoked flavor imparted to the food is dependent upon the nature and amount of smoke to which the food is exposed, as well as the duration of exposure to the smoke during cooking. The more smoke produced by the smoking device, the faster the smoke flavor is imparted to the food. Consequently, more smoke flavor can be imparted to the food in less cooking time when the smoking device produces more smoke under any given cooking conditions. With more smoke, a piece of food that is cooked more rapidly at a higher temperature can be infused with as much smoke flavor as a similar piece of food cooked for a longer period of time at a lower cooking temperature. Also, with more smoke, a piece of food that is cooked to a lesser degree of doneness (e.g., rare) can have the same degree of smoky flavor imparted to it as a similar piece of food cooked at the same temperature for a longer period of time to a greater degree of doneness (e.g., well done).
In conventional smoker devices, the amount of smoke generated by the smoke producing material is dependent upon several factors, including the composition of the smoke producing material, the amount and nature of the heat applied to the smoke producing material, either directly or indirectly, and the air flow around the heated smoke producing material.
Many existing smoking devices that can be used with conventional barbecue grills are placed on top of the open grill, which serves solely as the heat source for the device but does not permit the use of the grill's cooking surface because the device is otherwise a closed system in which the meat is placed within the device along with the source of the smoke. The cooking capacity of those types of devices is, therefore, limited to something less than that of the grill. Because much of the heat generated by the grill is dissipated to the outside of the smoking device, these types of grill-top smokers consume more energy to produce the heat necessary to cook the meat and to cause the smoke producing material to smoke, and their lesser energy efficiency makes them more expensive to operate.
Other smoking devices that are designed to be used with a conventional barbecue grill under a closed cover may allow the end-user to use the grill's cooking surface, but do not optimize the amount of smoke produced by the smoke producing material either because the source of heat used to heat the smoke producing material is diffuse and less efficient at heating the smoke producing material or because the arrangement of the smoke producing material does not optimize the production of smoke by the heated smoke producing material. Still other existing smoking devices used with conventional grills are limited with respect to the smoke producing material that may be used. In many existing devices, the heat is directed to the smoke producing material from only a single direction and/or the air flow about the heated smoke producing material is limited thus limiting the smoke producing materials' exposure to the heat, heating the smoke producing material unevenly or incompletely, and/or limiting the amount of smoke produced by the smoke producing material.
Other conventional smoking devices include external smokers that are attached to the outside of a conventional grill and inject smoke into the grill enclosure. Such conventional devices typically require a modification of the grill enclosure, such as drilling holes into or connecting tubing to the grill for allowing passage of smoke from the external device to the interior of the grill enclosure. This type of installation is burdensome on users of conventional grills. Additionally, many conventional grill users do not like the idea of drilling holes in their expensive grills. Another problem associated with conventional external smoking devices is exposure to the weather. By placing a smoker device on the exterior of a grill, rain, wind and snow can damage and cause corrosion in the smoker. Additionally, insects and animals may form nests in such external smoker devices.
Another problem with conventional smoker devices that are rigidly affixed to a grill is that the smoker device becomes immoveable upon installation. For example, some conventional smoker devices require a user to permanently bolt or attach the smoker to the exterior or interior of a grill. This is an inconvenience for the user in the event the user desires to use the smoker apparatus on a different grill or transport the smoker apparatus independently of the grill to which it is attached.
What is needed, then, are improved smoking devices that operate with a conventional grill, allowing the grill to be used both as a cooking device and a smoker. Also needed are improved smoker devices that are configured to be placed and operated on the interior of a grill enclosure.